A temporary problem - Sketches

The Mindanao problem is temporary; the peso's continuing fall is temporary. "Temporary" is the latest buzzword at Malacañang. I can imagine the word being conjured up by Cabinet members to calm President Erap.

When you wring your hands in dismay over the shrinking peso and feel frustrated that you can no longer go to the shopping mall, you can console yourself with the thought that among the most anxious about the country's crises is President Erap himself. The buzz is that the President had wanted to cut short his state visit to China even before his departure for Beijing, and it was his idea to return a day early to Manila after the bad news from the home front piled up.

For all his back-slapping style of camaraderie, the President does have a temper, and no one relishes breaking bad news to him. His close aides hesitated before reporting to him that his eldest son Jojo Ejercito had survived an ambush in Pampanga last Tuesday.

How do you tell a temperamental President that his chief negotiator was snubbed by the Abu Sayyaf, that the peso has hit 43.40 to the dollar, that he's been roasted in the cover story of Time magazine? How do you tell him that a passenger with a paltik and grenade hijacked a Philippine Airlines Airbus 330 from Davao, then bailed out after robbing the passengers? (Only in the Philippines! Welcome to Slapstick Central.)

You tell him that all the negative developments are temporary. That as sure as the sun rises, the dark clouds will part and things will get better by and by. Why, even the Great Flood lasted only 40 days and 40 nights.

I can see the President being told to consider several ifs: If the Abu Sayyaf frees all its hostages and the group gets wiped out from the face of the planet, if the Moro Islamic Liberation Front forges a peace agreement with the government, if the terrorist attacks in Metro Manila stop, then the stock market and the peso may recover, together with his survey ratings. Very iffy, but believe me, if the pitch is made by Sunshine Boy Titoy Pardo, the President will anticipate the good news.

The only question is how temporary is temporary. If it's as temporary as a temporary restraining order issued by our courts, we're in trouble.

Dark clouds are still gathering. I don't think you can expect stability in the run-up to elections in this country. President Erap isn't in the running, but the mid-term elections next year will be crucial to his administration's survival. If his popularity continues to nose-dive, the rats are likely to abandon the administration's ship and move to the opposition. Such is life in these islands.

If the opposition wrests control of Congress next year, the President will not only have trouble realizing his legislative agenda; he may also find himself facing impeachment just halfway through his term. Now that's a sobering thought for a sitting Chief Executive.

The buzz at Camp Crame is that certain intelligence units recently conducted an informal survey showing a landslide win for opposition candidates in the 2001 elections. Can the President afford to lose the support of Congress and local governments?

There is talk about some dirty tricks department currently at work to postpone the 2001 elections. The Young Officers' Union raised the issue this week, but I heard about it from other sources. These dirty tricks experts can't be responsible for the peso's fall, but they could be responsible for recent mysterious terrorist attacks in Metro Manila.

On the other hand, there are simply too many groups that can take advantage of the unrest generated by the Mindanao conflict and we may never find out who's behind the mischief in Metro Manila. Some quarters are blaming Fidel Ramos' supporters in the military; others are accusing the group of Linggoy Alcuaz.

I don't think the unrest will die down even after the elections. It will persist throughout the Estrada administration. Is that considered temporary?

Earlier this week the military's spokesman, Col. Rafael Romero, and Col. Jaime Canatoy, public affairs chief, said there were only 25 Abu Sayyaf members left. The other day, the Armed Forces announced the capture of 24 Abu Sayyaf members. Does this mean only one Abu Sayyaf terrorist is left to guard the 21 hostages in Sulu and the seven Pinoy captives in Basilan?

The Abu Sayyaf leadership alone is composed of 20 people: four members of an executive council led by Khadafi Janjalani, a "special staff" member, eight "functional staff heads" based in Basilan, three "group leaders" and four "territorial unit" heads. I don't think any person on this confidential list prepared by the Armed Forces has been arrested.

Let's hope this is not the kind of briefing President Erap is getting from his military commanders.

What did they tell him about Jojo Ejercito's ambush, I wonder? That looked like one narrow river for 30 heavily armed men to materialize out of nowhere and open fire at a long boat convoy. These are strange times. It's like having a nightmare. Everyone knows a bad dream is temporary, but for the one having it, the nightmare seems to last forever.

BUZZ: President Erap skipped a visit to China's Great Wall, but he didn't want to put the blame on his bum knee. On his return flight to Manila, he walked from the first class section of a Philippine Airlines jet to the plane's tail end to chat with the lesser mortals in economy. His explanation for skipping the Great Wall was that he'd been there in 1994. "If you've seen one Great Wall," he said, "you've seen them all!"

Speaking of the bum knee, it's scheduled for another operation, possibly next week. Watch that presidential gait.

ONLY IN RP: The most expensive stretch of road in this country is located at the T.S. Cruz Subdivision in Las Piñas. For a narrow two-lane road about a kilometer long, full of humps and dotted in some parts with shanties, a motorist must pay a toll of P20, even if you have a Las Piñas resident's sticker. Eat your heart out, PNCC. That's the start of a so-called Friendship Route that was opened so Las Piñas residents can avoid the traffic on the city's lone major thoroughfare. You need a "friendship sticker" for this route. It's a limited edition sticker that disappears as fast as the black marketeers can get their hands on the stuff (it's sold for P500 apiece).

As far as I know, taxpayers paid for the road improvement and street lighting of T.S. Cruz, so why should Las Piñas taxpayers pay an exorbitant toll? Isn't extortion a criminal offense? Is this toll collection cleared with the Toll Regulatory Board, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Metro Manila Development Authority? Do these agencies care? Truly, this government is puro pahirap.